RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The holding of New Year’s Eve (“Reveillon”) festivities with the public and the traditional fireworks entered a waiting period in Brazilian capitals. The persistence of the pandemic could threaten the New Year’s Eve events in some cities where these celebrations are traditional.
Salvador City Hall expects the issue to be resolved in the coming days, as do Recife and Fortaleza.
In Belo Horizonte, the Committee to Combat Covid-19 advised against the event, while the city of Florianópolis has already launched Verão da Virada 2022, which includes a party with fireworks. In São Paulo and Rio, the Reveillon program was maintained.
In Salvador, the definition will follow a meeting between Mayor Bruno Reis and Governor Rui Costa. Last year, the fireworks were held in private and broadcast over the Internet.
Already, the private parties are to be held in more than 20 locations in the capital of Bahia. The last edition of the New Year’s Eve celebration from 2019 to 2020 saw 2 million revelers during the five-day party.
São Paulo plans to hold the New Year’s Eve party on Avenida Paulista. Mayor Ricardo Nunes has announced that the event will return from 2020 to 2021 after the pandemic-related interruption. On Wednesday, May 24, the capital of São Paulo reached the mark of 100% of the adult population fully vaccinated.
In Rio, Mayor Eduardo Paes (PSD) plans to celebrate the party on Copacabana beach. Since July, he has repeated that the event will be held at full capacity, as in the years before the pandemic. Last week, City Hall announced no more patients with Covid-19 in the municipal health network.
WITHOUT CONFIRMATION
The situation is different in Recife, where City Hall has not yet publicly confirmed Réveillon. “Recife is aware that only by overcoming the pandemic will it be possible to guarantee the events,” the mayor said in a statement.
In Fortaleza, the celebration is also still undetermined. Mayor José Sarto created a working group to deal with the implementation of the event. The possibility of combining the burning of fireworks with the opening of beaches to the public had already been studied by the Covid 19 Committee, as indicators of the pandemic had declined.
One of the possibilities is that Réveillon is allowed only for people with full vaccination protection.
The Covid-19 Committee advised against celebrating New Year’s Eve in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, because of the risk of crowding. They took into account vaccination rates below the desired level and the risk of occurrence of coronavirus variants.
FLORIANÓPOLIS
In the capital of Santa Catarina, the fireworks will take place exclusively in the northern bay, with views from Beira-Mar Norte and Continental. There will be no musical performance.